Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Fear, Loneliness, Regret, Death, Appearance & Reality, Friendship, Self Discovery, Good & Evil, Safety & Danger, Truth & Lies
Tags Horror & Suspense, Fantasy, LGBTQ+, Mystery & Crime Fiction
Popular Book Club Picks
Searching for study guides on books selected by some of the nation's top book clubs, curated by Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, the PBS NewsHour, the New York Times, and the American Library Association? Look no further. This collection covers critically-acclaimed classics like Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez to contemporary, buzzworthy novels like Girl, Woman, Other. We hope this compilation of study guides provides your own book club with lively discussion topics and keen insights.
Hide
Hillbilly Elegy
History of Wolves
Home Fire
Homegoing
Homeseeking
Homo Deus
Honey & Spice
Honor
Horse
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Hot Milk
House of Sand and Fog
How High We Go in the Dark
How the Word Is Passed
How to Hide an Empire
How to Kill Your Family
How to Read a Book
How to Say Babylon
Humankind
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Fear, Loneliness, Regret, Death, Appearance & Reality, Friendship, Self Discovery, Good & Evil, Safety & Danger, Truth & Lies
Tags Horror & Suspense, Fantasy, LGBTQ+, Mystery & Crime Fiction
Publication year 2016
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Family, Loyalty & Betrayal
Tags Sociology, Poverty, World History, Biography
American author J. D. Vance’s 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, chronicles Vance’s Appalachian upbringing in a poor Scots-Irish working-class culture. As Vance tells the story of his journey from broken Ohio homes to the Marine Corps, Ohio State University, and Yale Law School, he also documents the numerous factors that comprise white, working-class Appalachians’ descent into poverty, addiction, and despair, leaving them ostracized and, often, in danger... Read Hillbilly Elegy Summary
Publication year 2017
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Coming of Age
Tags Modern Classic Fiction
Emily Fridlund’s 2017 debut novel, History of Wolves, blends the genres of thriller and bildungsroman to tell the story of a teen’s coming of age through the life altering events that follow her taking up a babysitting position for her new neighbors. The novel, a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, examines guilt, trauma, obsession, and the responsibility of the onlooker through the emotionally evasive protagonist as she attempts to navigate the adult world. This... Read History of Wolves Summary
Publication year 2017
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Loyalty & Betrayal, Family
Tags Modern Classic Fiction
Home Fire (2017) is the seventh novel by contemporary British writer Kamila Shamsie. The same year, Home Fire was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize; in 2018, it won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. This study guide refers to the 2017 Riverhead Books Edition.Other works by this author include Best of Friends, Burnt Shadows, and Broken Verses.Plot SummaryShamsie’s Home Fire is a 21st-century adaptation... Read Home Fire Summary
Publication year 2016
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family
Tags Historical Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Race & Racism, Modern Classic Fiction, World History
Homegoing is a historical fiction novel by Yaa Gyasi, a Ghanaian-American novelist born in 1989. Homegoing was published in 2016 and was awarded the 2017 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, the 2016 John Leonard Prize for outstanding debut novel, and the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 award in 2016. Written in the tradition of Alex Haley’s Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976), Gyasi tells the story of one 18th-century Akan family, tracking it across... Read Homegoing Summary
Publication year 2025
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Love, The Past, Place, Mothers, War
Tags Historical Fiction, Asian Literature
Publication year 2015
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Science & Technology, Environment, Future, Appearance & Reality
Tags Science & Nature, World History, Philosophy, Anthropology, Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, Psychology, Philosophy, Politics & Government
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2015) is a work of popular science by Israeli writer, professor, and futurist Yuval Noah Harari. Published in multiple languages, it is a continuation of the work of Harari’s previous book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. While Sapiens contextualized the advents of modernity within humans’ evolutionary legacy, Homo Deus speculates about what lies in wait for humanity in the distant future. Harari grounds his discussion in an... Read Homo Deus Summary
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Love, Femininity, Race, Coming of Age
Tags Modern Classic Fiction, Romance, New Adult
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Hope, Love, Loyalty & Betrayal, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Fear, Grief, Hate & Anger, Memory, Shame & Pride, Femininity, Family, Self Discovery, Social Class, Colonialism, Community, Justice, Safety & Danger
Tags Historical Fiction
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Art, Animals, The Past
Tags Historical Fiction, Animals, Race & Racism, American Civil War, Sports, World History, Arts & Culture
Publication year 2009
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Fathers, Loyalty & Betrayal, Music
Tags World War II, Historical Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Military & War, World History, Romance
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford is a historical novel published in 2009. The story follows Henry Lee at two pivotal stages in his life—in 1942, when he is a 12-year-old with a crush on a Japanese girl, and in 1986, when he is recently widowed. The book, Ford’s debut novel, spent 130 weeks atop the New York Times Best-Seller List and won the 2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature... Read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet Summary
Publication year 2016
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Mothers, Daughters & Sons, Sexual Identity, Mental Health, Self Discovery
Tags LGBTQ+, Health
Hot Milk (2016) is a novel written by South African and British author Deborah Levy. It follows Sofia Papastergiadis, who has been caring for her mother, Rose, through Rose’s hypochondria-driven illnesses. Sofia and Rose go to Almeria, Spain, to seek treatment from Dr. Gomez. While there, Sofia must confront her mother’s dependency on her and question what she wants in her own life. Levy explores themes of The Struggle for Independence, The Complexities of Sexual... Read Hot Milk Summary
Publication year 1999
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Guilt
Tags Horror & Suspense, Modern Classic Fiction, Dramatic Literature
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III, originally published in 1999, is a crime novel concerning a dispute over the ownership of a house in the Bay Area beach town of Corona, California. Told primarily through the dueling perspectives of a recovered addict and Iranian exile, the novel interrogates the nature of American identity and the integrity of social relationships. House of Sand and Fog has earned numerous recognitions: It was selected for... Read House of Sand and Fog Summary
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Science & Technology, Hope, Perseverance, Death, Community, Grief, Loneliness, Future, The Past, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Fear, Love, Memory, Nostalgia, Climate, Space, Family, Friendship
Tags Science Fiction, Fantasy, Grief & Death, Climate Change, Technology
Publication year 2021
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Race, Memory, Justice
Tags US History, Race & Racism, Social Justice, Politics & Government, World History
Publication year 2019
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Nation, Race, Colonialism, Power & Greed
Tags American Literature, US History, Politics & Government, World History, Colonialism & Postcolonialism
Publication year 2021
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Hate & Anger, Revenge, Gender Identity, Social Class, Justice
Tags Modern Classic Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Humor
Publication year 1940
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Literature, Education, Perseverance, Language
Tags Self-Improvement, Education, Philosophy, Education, Leadership, Philosophy, Classic Fiction
Publication year 2023
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Family
Tags Religion & Spirituality, Women`s Studies, Afro-Caribbean Literature, Gender & Feminism, Biography
Publication year 2019
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Community, Politics & Government, Good & Evil
Tags World History, Psychology, Philosophy, Politics & Government, Sociology, Anthropology, Dutch Literature, Anthropology, Science & Nature, Psychology, Philosophy